The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-12-28
4 BALLAD FOR CHRISTMAS TIME.


A BALLAD FOR CHRISTMAS TIME,
Ths bells are loud, the bells are sweet along
the winter land;
Ths trees are bright with frosted sleet, and
like mailed warriors stand;
The wind sings down the southern slope Of
valleys lying wide,
Where like line Of silver scope, the narrow
rivers glide.
The sea-birds cry with boding call across the
And on the cape the lighthouse tall sentinel
doth stand,
And fierce and high the north-wind roars
down from the forest drear,
And bears far on to distant shores the leaves
made brown and Sere.
Far out it meets ship that sails from distant
tropic seas:
Her masts have braved the stormiest gales,
and wooed the softest breeze.
Around the bleakncss of Cape Horn her out
ward way she bore,
And met the radiant light Of morn on Cali
fornia's shore
Across the wide Pacific's waves she sailed to
far Cathay.
Below her course the coral waves stretched
for long leagues away;
She heard the tiger growl his love on distant
Borueo,
And swift before the tempests drove, where
swirled Antarctic snow.
Now with her weather. braces taut, and royals
snugly furled,
She comes with orient fragrance fraught up
from the under world;
The sundays on her canvas gleam, the seas
before her mart
She sees the light of welcome stream from
out her waiting mart
The cold wind shouts and in the North a
black line rises slow,
The trumpets Of the storm blaze forth, and
high the white caps grow,
And down the gray and cloudy West the red
sun lingering falls,
While weirdly DER the oceans breast loud
ring the seagull's calls.
Below the dark slope of the hills the sunlight
slowly fades.
And sad the sobbing tone that fills nights
deep and somber shades;
The stars pale from the clouded sky, the
storm roar weights the gloom,
The cyclone notes are wild and high, and
sing a song Of doom.
Tomorrow brings the Christmas tide, the
welcome and the cheer
That in each loving home doth bide, grown
dearer every year;
The hearth. fire now is bright and warm, and
glad with cracking song.
While out at sea the windy storm grows
jubilant and strong.
The brave ship breasts the sturdy blast, and
nears the echoing cape:
Fierce breakers on the reef are cast, deep
gloom the low rocks drape
Why shines no beacon from the height,
where, like giant ghost,
The lighthouse through the sobbing night
frowps on the dreary coasts
No voice can pierce the sullen roar that fills
the foaming reach,
Where stern waves hurl the icy store along
the sodden beach;
The helmsman watches for the star that from
the beetling steep
Should show the harbor's frothing bar, and
light the painless deep.
Two points ahead he heads the ship, straight
for the reef he steers,
The fierce waves by the dark sides slip, the
wind is loud with cheers;
Death waits amid the yeasty wrath that lies
the reef along,
His bony fingers point the path where dan.
gers thickest throng.
But love has seen the gloomy tower, and love
Is deaths strong foe;
And where the shadows deepest lower, and
winds the loudest blow,
With brave heart speeds a winsome maid
she gains the lighthouse stair,
And soon, amid the windy shade, out-shines
golden glare.
The weary helmsman sees the sign, her own
betrothed is he;
He filings aside the singing brine, and bears
the helm a-lee
And cleaving through the driving foam the
ship obeys her wheel,
While on the reef the breakers comb ten
fathonls from her keel.
Ring loud, o, Christmas bells, ring loud! the
morning spleudor wakes,
And through the rifted mass of cloud the
amber glory breaks;
The sunlight ripples through the town, the
sea-birds wing their way
Where, with sails furled and anchor down,
ship rides in the bay.
Oh, love is stronger far than death, the souls
Of men are his;
Gloom fades before his fragrant breath, grief
dies beneath his kiss;
Who dares for him will deeply drain the
wine within his wells,
The maiden's heart has lost its pain, ring
loud, D Christmas bells!
Thomas S. Collier.